Re: `New' sub-menu in desktop's rightclick-menu

[Dave Bordoley <bordoley msu edu>]

On Wed, 2002-05-22 at 14:34, Alex Larsson wrote:
> The symlink doesn't sound all that useful, and what would it do? bring up 
> a wizard? Doesn't sound like a good ui. Drag and drop, or paste as symlink 
> seem much more natural to me.

The symlink thing might be a bad idea. However, I was talking with seth
about the new launcher dialog, and there is a good chance that post 2.0
it is going to be divided into seperate mini apps to create each
different type of .desktop file (ed. application, link, fs device...etc)
since users don't really need to know the specifics (that these are all
different types of .desktop files), and the current create launcher ui
is well damn near impossible to use. So these would probably be in the
menu too.

create => folder
       => application launcher
       => link (the .desktop type) etc.

Also there have been requests for functionality similar to that of
windows to create new files (see bug 41787) that could also be in here.

Regardless if we create a subfolder or not we need to change the wording
as new window/new terminal are completely different types of operations
than new folder and new launcher. I think create is a better word since
the metaphor is really strong, the user is creating something.


> I am not sure we want the possiblility to create application launchers 
> anywhere. For the desktop it makes sense, and maybe we can look at the uri 
> and allow it for some of the vfolder directories. But it doesn't make much 
> sense for e.g. /tmp.

It is possible that i'll want to add other .desktop files like links to
other directories in my home dir. I see no reason for us to tell users
where they can and can't make .desktop files, that's really their
decision, especially when they can just drag and drop them there from
the panel anyway.


> Remove new window??? Are you trying to make Nautilus completely unusable?
> 
> New terminal is a very often requested and used piece of functionallity. 
> The goal of Nautilus is to make it usable, not easy-to-learn because it 
> doesn't let you do anything. We must accept that Unix is Unix, and there 
> will always be things that are better of done in a terminal. 
> 
> I want a Nautilus that experienced users feel they can use and be 
> productive with, but newbies are not afraid to touch.
> 

As i said these are ideas i'm kicking around, I do not claim to be the
god of ui design, far from it (trust me i've filed some really dumb ui
bugs in bugzilla before).

But also we need to look at the desktop context menu in particular and
ask is this a frequently enough used feature, and is it consistent with
our overall ui, if the answer is yes than great, if not than we need to
make decisions. 

Let me admit a bias, I think the desktop should be $home. If it's $home
well than new window doesn't make so much sense, since it simply open's
the file manager to the directory your currently looking at anyway, so
it's repetitive. i guess this also leads to my opinion that for the vast
majority of users on multi users systems where gnome is most likely to
be used (like large college installations) most users will only have
access/interest in $home anyway (I know this is the case on my school's
unix machines). I would rather add a filesystem launcher on the
desktop,that opens nautilus in the / directory, similar to the macs
system launcher (i think thats what it's called). This is is actually a
much better ui since it immediately give power users access to the whole
file system, they don't need to traverse up from $home to /, they are
already there, and they now have access to any location on the file
system.

however this issue obviously pushes deeper into the discussion of is
nautilus going to just be a file manager, or is it going to aim higher
and become a full desktop realization of the shell. I can't make that
decision, but we need to think about it.



> > Another thing there is a good chance that in 2.0.1 gnome-terminal will
> > be one of the option in the open with menu for folders (as an
> > application)...so i think this makes new terminal obsolete when
> > implemented.
> 
> Not really. You want to open a new terminal in the currently viewed 
> directory, not in a directory you have selected.
>  

Well at least in the file manager view, open with terminal would appear
in the sidebar for folders. I'm not convinced that new terminal has to
be in the context menu, especially when the default panel has a terminal
launcher on it. Why should we clutter the context menu with this when it
actually takes less work (one click vs. two) to launch this from the
panel using the launcher.

dave

> -- 
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>  Alexander Larsson                                            Red Hat, Inc 
>                    alexl redhat com    alla lysator liu se 
> He's a globe-trotting one-eyed paramedic possessed of the uncanny powers of an 
> insect. She's a hard-bitten junkie lawyer descended from a line of powerful 
> witches. They fight crime! 
> 
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